Sidney Nolan

About

Sidney Nolan (1917 - 1992), one of the most important Australian artists of the twentieth century, lived his last years on the Welsh-Midlands border. To mark the centenary of his birth, in collaboration with The Sidney Nolan Trust, Ikon brings to light a selection of extraordinary paintings dating from the 1980s.

Made with spray paint on canvas, the works include a number of large portraits of individuals Nolan identified with, such as Arthur Rimbaud, Francis Bacon, Vincent van Gogh, Francisco Goya, Benjamin Britten and Brett Whiteley. Rimbaud was a key figure, according to artist-writer Elwyn Lynn who explains that Nolan became enthralled by the way in which the poet had been "possessed by creativeness, had grown obsessed by its processes and immersed himself in both its central and peripheral demands". These fugitive portraits are thus projections as much as likenesses.